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Sum of All Fears According to Debka, the nightmare whose name I dared not speak may be upon us:

DEBKAfile's intelligence sources think it possible that the al Qaeda chief may have accumulated as many nuclear devices of unknown types as Saddam, with only a part of his nuclear stock kept in Afghanistan; some devices may even have been smuggled into the United States.

Earlier in the same article they imply that Saddam and bin Laden are co-operating on nuclear weapons. Now Debkafile is sometimes so far in front of the story they are off the planet, but they are correct often enough that I can not reject this story out of hand. Additionally, there is little here that doesn't jive with my own hunches and my own expectations of behavior of the various players.

No one has ever satisfactorily explained to me what happened to the missing Russian tactical nuclear weapons described in a multi-page spread here in the UK some ten years ago. Taken altogether it is enough that I suggest US residents take SFC Red Thomas' NBC survival advice [Words of Wisdom About Gas, Germs, and Nukes, Samizdata 2001-11-08] very seriously indeed.

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A Time For Heroes. From the first recognized day of the war I have been reporting character and true heroism are alive and well in America. That character came packaged in all sorts of shapes and sizes including very "non-traditional" ones: a gay San Francisco rugby player as an example. We simply cannot say enough about these very ordinary people who stepped onto an airplane in a world at peace. Within a few hours they had fought and died in the first battle of the war. These individuals acted in a way that would honour the noblest traditions of any Corp of the US military. Unlike a soldier who is trained, briefed, ordered and given a mission, these people improvised their own structure and strategy on the spot and then implimented it. I find it heartening that the President and the Nation recognize this:

"Above all, we will live in a spirit of courage and optimism. Our nation was born in that spirit, as immigrants yearning for freedom courageously risked their lives in search of greater opportunity. That spirit of optimism and courage still beckons people across the world who want to come here. And that spirit of optimism and courage must guide those of us fortunate enough to live here.

Courage and optimism led the passengers on Flight 93 to rush their murderers to save lives on the ground. Led by a young man whose last known words were the Lord's Prayer and "Let's roll." He didn't know he had signed on for heroism when he boarded the plane that day. Some of our greatest moments have been acts of courage for which no one could have ever prepared.

We will always remember the words of that brave man, expressing the spirit of a great country. We will never forget all we have lost, and all we are fighting for. Ours is the cause of freedom. We've defeated freedom's enemies before, and we will defeat them again.

We cannot know every turn this battle will take. Yet we know our cause is just and our ultimate victory is assured. We will, no doubt, face new challenges. But we have our marching orders: My fellow Americans, let's roll." -- President George W Bush, November 8th, 2001.

In honouring these fine people we honour ourselves, for "They" are us. Let us hope we live up to the high bar of courage they have set for us.

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Samizdata slogan of the day:

Libertarians do not seek chaos but rather a more spontaneous order
- Perry de Havilland

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Is real life starting to imitate computer games?

There is an interesting Boston Herald article about the draconian plans to, in effect, declare martial law in the USA in the event of a bioweaponized attack of smallpox.

Probably the best computer game yet made is Deus Ex, in which you, the player, take on the role of J. C. Denton, an 'enhanced' agent of uncertain background and shifting loyalties.

Initially you start out as a good little statist secret policeman working in the USA and supporting FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (which actually does exist in real life) as it tries to distribute vaccine to key people as a terrible disease ravages New York city in the near future... and fighting against the 'terrorist' bad guys who for some reason are trying to thwart FEMA. Eventually you end up working for these self same 'terrorists' and fighting against your previous employer when it turns out that the plague is really just an excuse for FEMA to mastermind a coup d'etat, suspend all civil rights and take over the US government.

Read the Boston Herald article and then ask yourself...is reality starting to take it's lead from computer games? Scary thought.

Deus Ex is a superb game. Unlike most 'first person shooters' in which you interact with people mostly by shooting them, in Deus Ex you have to actually talk to them (and of course some you do indeed end up shooting). This is a game which actually has characters expressing political and moral views, from mystical totalitarianism to cynical statism to well armed libertarianism! Also, how many other computer games do you know of in which during a visit to Paris, you can find yourself being subjected to a believably idiotic existentialist argument? Likewise, whilst stealing some weapons from an arms dealer's house, if you click on a book next to his bed you will find yourself reading a chapter of Common Sense by Tom Paine. Elsewhere, you may or may not encounter two utterly incidental characters who are clearly very closely based on The Story of O. This is a superb and intelligent game that does not treat the player like an ignoramus.

However let's hope it is not also an accurate vision of the future!

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Archane mobile wisdom
News you can use

Tip: do this before your mobile phone is stolen!
(translation: that means 'cell phone' to you bloggers in the United Snakes of America)

You may find the tip below of interest but hopefully you will never have to make use of the knowlage.

A little 'get your own back' if you have your mobile stolen.To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone:
*#06#

A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it safe.

Should your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then block your handset so even if the thief changes the Sim card your phone will be totally useless. You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that the thief can't use/sell it either. If everybody did this, there would be no point in stealing mobile phones!

Impart this archane wisdom to as many people as possible.

Dave Shaw
Samizdata admin technoblogger

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May I strongly recommend to fellow bloggers to go out and get a Green friend a copy of Bjorn Lomborg's book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, copyright 2001, p515, Cambridge University Press. A great book, written by a leftist former Greenpeace member who saw the light after reading material by the late, great and much-missed Julian L. Simon. Lomborg is that rarity, a Green with a thirst for the hard facts who is not afraid to change his mind if the facts don't fit a preconceived view. Already getting rave reviews.

Read the author's excellent summary at The Economist here.

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Samizdata slogan of the day:

Turning to Communism for fear of Fascism
is like suicide for fear of death
- Perry de Havilland

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Hawala bashing: The arrogance, stupidity and futility of 'power'

An article in the Washington Post reports moves against a couple of the larger 'Hawala' networks. Also: "Under the new anti-terrorism legislation passed by Congress last month, hawalas will be required by year-end to register with the Treasury Department and, like banks, to report suspicious activities, such as unusually large cash transfers."

The idiots seem to completely miss the point about why people use hawala (or Chinese 'Fei Qian') to move money internationally. It is so that the state cannot see what they are doing. To demand hawalas register with the state and report 'suspicious activities' is rather like passing a law requiring bank robbers to register and file a report prior to conducting a robbery. Do terrorists use hawala? Probably. So do millions of other people. Will they manage to shut the system down (which has been around since the 11th Century in India, China and other parts of Asia)? My guess is they will be even less successful than that other triumph of the state's excursion into international paramilitary policing, namely the 'Drug War'. These hawalas occur within ethnically homogenous tight knit communities. It is going to be impossible to shut down more than a few of these dispersed, multiply redundant networks as they are semi-underground as it is and extremely easy to set up again by others if any given hawala is disrupted.

What is a hawala?

A hawala (or fei qian) is a simple network set up to transfur funds internationally, usually using a member of an extended family or personal friend on both sides of the network (though a few larger hawalas are almost like banks). Vijay (or Abdul or Deng) goes to a hawala (typically a small back street office) in London (or Los Angeles or Paris or Toronto) and gives them a quantity of cash plus a small brokerage fee. He tells the hawala who he wants to collect the money in Calcutta (or Karachi or Cairo or Shanghai) and then leaves. The business is conducted with a handshake and trust. The hawala in London calls his contact in Calcutta (often a cousin or other family member) and tells him how much to disburse and to whom. This is often done on the phone but increasingly it is done by PGP encrypted e-mail. Next day, a relative of Vijay (or Abdul or Deng) goes to the hawala in Calcutta, identifies himself to the associated hawala there and collects his cash. The hawala run acounts with each other and periodically settle up the old fashioned way: a guy with a suitcase packed full of used 50 pound notes (or 100 dollar bills) gets on a plane in London, flies to Calcutta and settles the tab in cash. It is that simple!

In fact they are an excellent example of highly successful, completely unregulated, handshake based international capitalism. Hence is it hardly surprising so many people in government do not like these networks as it gives lie to all the smug claims about the supposed superiority of the West's regulated international financial systems.

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The Panopticon State is at it again... all of them!

As usual, the state wants to see all and know all... of course it will still understand nothing. Wired magazine has a good article about the current state of play.

Remember boys and girls, when crypto is outlawed, only outlaws will have crypto. I have the greatest confidence we will always find new and innovative ways of keeping the state blind, deaf and dumb about things that are none of it's damn business... namely our business.

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The following is an excellent primer on how to deal with the various unconventional weapons likely (or not) to be used by your basic anti-social anti-liberty terrorist types. It is also a wonderful counter to the all-Anthrax-all-the-time bombardment being conducted by the mainstream US media.
The skinny for those of you who may even now be in the midst of a swirling noxious cloud and don't have the time to read the whole text is hold your breath, walk away and wash your hands.

Words of Wisdom About Gas, Germs, and Nukes

By SFC Red Thomas, Armor Master Gunner
U.S. Army (Ret) 10.19.01

Since the media have decided to scare everyone with predictions of chemical, biological, or nuclear warfare on our turf I decided to write a paper and keep things in their proper perspective. I am a retired military weapons, munitions, and training expert.

Lesson number one: In the mid 1990s there was a series of nerve gas attacks on crowded Japanese subway stations. Given perfect conditions for an attack,less than 10% of the people there were injured (the injured were better in a few hours) and only one percent of the injured died. CBS-Television's 60 Minutes once had a fellow telling us that one drop of nerve gas could kill a thousand people. He didn't tell you the thousand dead people per drop was theoretical. Drill Sergeants exaggerate how terrible this stuff is to keep the recruits awake in class (I know this because I was a Drill Sergeant too).

Forget everything you've ever seen on TV, in the movies, or read in a novel about this stuff, it was all a lie (Read this sentence again out loud!). These weapons are about terror, if you remain calm, you will probably not die.

This is far less scary than the media and their "experts" make it sound. Chemical weapons are categorized as Nerve, Blood, Blister, and Incapacitating agents. Contrary to the hype of reporters and politicians, they are not weapons of mass destruction. They are means of "Area Denial," effective to keep an enemy out of a particular zone for a limited period of time: terror weapons that don't destroy anything. When you leave the area you almost always leave the risk.

That's the difference; you can leave the area and the risk. Soldiers may have to stay put and sit through it and that's why they need all that spiffy gear.

These are not gasses; they are vapors and/or airborne particles. Any such agent must be delivered in sufficient quantity to kill or injure, and that defines when and how it's used.

Every day we have a morning and evening atmospheric inversion where "stuff," suspended in the air gets pushed down. This inversion is why allergies (pollen) and air pollution are worst at these times of the day.

So, a chemical attack will have its best effect an hour of so either side of sunrise or sunset. Also, being vapors and airborne particles, the agents are heavier than air, so they will seek low places like ditches, basements and underground garages. This stuff won't work when it's freezing, it doesn't last when it's hot, and wind spreads it too thin too fast.

Attackers have to get this stuff on you, or, get you to inhale it, for it to work. They also have to get the concentration of chemicals high enough to kill or injure you: too little and it's nothing, too much and it's wasted.

What I hope you've gathered by this point is that a chemical weapons attack that kills a lot of people is incredibly hard to achieve with military grade agents and equipment. So you can imagine how hard it would be for terrorists. The more you know about this stuff, the more you realize how hard it is to use.

A Case of Nerves
We'll start by talking about nerve agents. You have these in your house: plain old bug killer (like Raid) is nerve agent. All nerve agents work the same way; they are cholinesterase inhibitors that mess up the signals your nervous system uses to make your body function. It can harm you if you get it on your skin but it works best if you to inhale it. If you don't die in the first minute and you can leave the area, you're probably going to live.

The military's antidotes for all nerve agents are atropine and pralidoxime chloride. Neither one of these does anything to cure the nerve agent. They send your body into overdrive to keep you alive for five minutes. After that the agent is used up. Your best protection is fresh air and staying calm.

Listed below are the symptoms for nerve agent poisoning.
Sudden headache, Dimness of vision (someone you're looking at will have pinpointed pupils), Runny nose, Excessive saliva or drooling, Difficulty breathing, Tightness in chest, Nausea, Stomach cramps, Twitching of exposed skin where a liquid just got on you.

If you are in public and you start experiencing these symptoms, first ask yourself, did anything out of the ordinary just happen, a loud pop, did someone spray something on the crowd? Are other people getting sick too? Is there an odor of new mown hay, green corn, something fruity, or camphor where it shouldn't be?

If the answer is yes, then calmly (if you panic you breathe faster and inhale more air/poison) leave the area and head upwind, or outside. Fresh air is the best "right now antidote." If you have a blob of liquid that looks like molasses or Karo syrup on you; blot it or scrape it off and away from yourself with anything disposable.

This stuff works based on your body weight: What a crop duster uses to kill bugs won't hurt you unless you stand there and breathe it in real deep, then lick the residue off the ground for while.

Remember, the attackers have to do all the work, they have to get the concentration up and keep it up for several minutes, while all you have to do is quit getting it on you and quit breathing it by putting space between yourself and the attack.

Bad Blood and Blisters
Blood agents are cyanide or arsine. They affect your blood's ability to provide oxygen to your tissues. The scenario for attack would be the same as nerve agent. Look for a pop or someone splashing or spraying something and folks around there getting woozy or falling down. The telltale smells are bitter almonds or garlic where it shouldn't be. The symptoms are blue lips, blue under the fingernails rapid breathing.

The military's antidote is amyl nitride and, just like nerve agent antidote, it just keeps your body working for five minutes till the toxins are used up. Fresh air is the your best individual chance

Blister agents (distilled mustard) are so nasty that nobody wants to even handle them, let alone use them. Blister agents are just as likely to harm the user as the target. They're almost impossible to handle safely and may have delayed effects of up to 12 hours. The attack scenario is also limited to the things you'd see from other chemicals. If you do get large, painful blisters for no apparent reason, don't pop them. If you must, don't let the liquid from the blister get on any other area: the stuff just keeps on spreading. Soap, water, sunshine, and fresh air are this stuff's enemy.

Bottom line on chemical weapons (and it's the same if they use industrial chemical spills): They are intended to make you panic, to terrorize you, to herd you like sheep to the wolves. If there is an attack, leave the area and go upwind, or to the sides of the wind stream. You're more likely to be hurt by a drunk driver on any given day than be hurt by one of these attacks. Your odds get better if you leave the area. Soap, water, time, and fresh air really deal this stuff a knock-out-punch. Don't let fear of an isolated attack rule your life. The odds are really on your side.

Up and Atom
Nuclear bombs: These are the only weapons of mass destruction on Earth. The effects of a nuclear bomb are heat, blast, EMP, and radiation. If you see a bright flash of light like the sun, where the sun isn't, fall to the ground!

The heat will be over a second. Then there will be two blast waves, one out going, and one on its way back. Don't stand up to see what happened after the first wave. Wait. Everything that's going to happen will have happened in two full minutes.

Any nuclear weapons used by terrorists will be low yield devices and will not level whole cities. If you live through the heat, blast, and initial burst of radiation, you'll probably live for a very very long time. Radiation will not create fifty foot tall women, or giant ants and grasshoppers the size of tanks. These will be at the most 1 kiloton bombs; that's the equivalent of 1,000 tons of TNT.

Here's the real hazard: Flying debris and radiation will kill a lot of exposed (not all)! people within a half mile of the blast. Under perfect conditions this is about a half mile circle of death and destruction, but when it's done it's done.

EMP stands for Electro Magnetic Pulse and it will fry every electronic device for a good distance. It's impossible to say what and how far, but probably not over a couple of miles from ground zero is a good guess. Cars, cell phones, computers, ATMs, you name it, all will be out of order. There are lots of kinds of radiation, but , physically,you only need to worry about three: alpha, beta, and gamma. The others you have lived with for years.

You need to worry about "Ionizing radiation," little sub atomic particles that go whizzing along at the speed of light. They hit individual cells in your body, kill the nucleus and keep on going. That's how you get radiation poisoning: You have so many dead cells in your body that the decaying cells poison you. It's the same as people getting radiation treatments for cancer, only a bigger area gets irradiated.

The good news is you don't have to just sit there and take it, and there are lots you can do rather than panic. First, your skin will stop alpha particles, a page of a news paper or your clothing will stop beta particles. Then you just have to try and avoid inhaling dust that's contaminated with atoms that are emitting these things and you'll be generally safe from them.

Gamma rays are particles that travel like rays (quantum physics makes my brain hurt) and they create the same damage as alpha and beta particles only they keep going and kill lots of cells as they go all the way through your body. It takes a lot to stop these things, lots of dense material. On the other hand it takes a lot of this to kill you.

Your defense is as always to not panic. Basic hygiene and normal preparation are your friends. All canned or frozen food is safe to eat. The radiation poisoning will not affect plants, so fruits and vegetables are OK if there's no dust on them (Rinse them off if there is). If you don't have running water and you need to collect rain water or use water from wherever, just let it sit for thirty minutes and skim off the water gently from the top. The dust with the bad stuff in it will settle and the remaining water can be used for the toilet which will still work if you have a bucket of water to pour in the tank.

The Germs' Terms
Finally there's biological warfare. There's not much to cover here. Basic personal hygiene and sanitation will take you further than a million doctors. Wash your hands often, don't share drinks, food, sloppy kisses, etc., ...with strangers. Keep your garbage can with a tight lid on it, don't have standing water (like old buckets, ditches, or kiddy pools) laying around to allow mosquitoes breeding room.

This stuff is carried by vectors, that is bugs, rodents, and contaminated material. If biological warfare is as easy as the TV makes it sound, why has Saddam Hussein spent twenty years, millions, and millions of dollars trying to get it right? If you're clean of person and home, eat well and are active, you're going to live.

Overall preparation for any terrorist attack is the same as you'd take for a big storm. If you want a gas mask, fine, go get one. I know this stuff and I'm not getting one and I told my Mom not to bother with one either (How's that for confidence?). We have a week's worth of cash, several days worth of canned goods and plenty of soap and water. We don't leave stuff out to attract bugs or rodents so we don't have them.

These terrorist people can't conceive of a nation this big with as much resources as it has. These weapons are made to cause panic, terror, and to demoralize. If we don't run around like sheep, they won't use this stuff after they find out it's no fun and does them little good. The government is going nuts over this stuff because they have to protect every inch of America. You only have to protect yourself, and by doing that, you help the country.

Finally, there are millions of caveats to everything I wrote here and you can think up specific scenarios in which my advice wouldn't be the best. This article is supposed to help the greatest number of people under the greatest number of situations. If you don't like my work, don't nitpick, just sit down and explain chemical, nuclear, and biological warfare in a document around three pages long yourself. This is how we the people of the United States can rob these people of their most desired goal, your terror.

SFC Red Thomas (Ret) Armor Master Gunner Mesa, AZ
Unlimited reproduction and distribution is authorized. Just give me credit for my work, and, keep in context.

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An interesting twist in the maze of identification technology. Once perfected, you may want to be a bit careful about what you pick up. The nefariously minded can doubtless dream up a slew of innocuous methods to scan your prints and use them later for their own evil purposes. Just as facial recognition software will push the eyeglass and false mustache fashion, look to print scanners to herald the return of elbow length gloves.

Sensor-on-a-chip passes fingerprint test
from the Morgan Chase Tech Industry Daily
The EntréPad fingerprint sensor fits onto a single chip and is less than a centimeter square--small enough for use in cell phones and PDAs, ZDNet News reported yesterday. The device has low power requirements and uses under ten milliwatts when imaging. A finger to be identified is applied to the top surface of the chip, which has an especially hardened coating. Identification takes place in under a second.
The sensor works by detecting the pattern of living cells beneath the dead epidermis. It creates a low-power field of radio waves that are distorted by the conductive salty fluids in the skin cells. A matrix of sensors on the chip's surface measures and charts this distortion, and the rest of the chip recreates the fingerprint image for analysis. The pattern of the cells beneath the epidermis is identical to that on the surface itself.
Editor's comment: Because the sensor doesn't react to the surface of the finger, it can't be distracted by changes to that surface - calluses, dirt or ageing aren't registered. The company said that as part of its tests, employees attempted to remove their fingerprints using abrasion, but this didn't affect the accuracy of the measurements. Ouch. Startups, it seems, draw a very committed type of employee.
Biometrics--the science of identifying people through personal attributes--is increasingly being seen as an important part of security. Fingerprints and iris recognition are among the most accurate and reliable methods being considered. Voice recognition is also attractive -- because it doesn't require physical presence, it is more attractive for remote authentication -- though, as a result, there are a lot more technical hurdles to overcome.

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Bruce Willis, as you note, won't get on a plane to Britain and is going to get a few rasberries come Die Hard Whatever It Is Up To Now. In this he follows the heroic tradition of Sly Stallone who wouldn't fly for fear of catching Foot & Mouth from the loo seats, or something. Oh yes, I remember now, his problem was fear of what we used to call "terrorism". Contrast our own magnificent Sting, up there on Concorde! Quite takes you back to the cutaways in Eagle Magazine, doesn't it, "Another British World Beater!" Just don't mention the cricketers.

On second thoughts, while I freely award boos and cheers to all the right people, let's not get hung up on gesture politics. Or on giving unwarranted attention to the irrelevant political views of famous hunks.

BTW on my husband's Eagle Book of Cutaways the de Havilland Comet is right next to the Short Solent flying boat. Isn't that cute?

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Samizdata slogan of the day:

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.
- Justice Louis D. Brandeis, US Supreme Court Justice,1929

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It should be clear beyond any reasonable doubt that the judgement, discrimination and taste of the previous King of Jordan, Hussain, was remarkable... astonishing even. It should also be absolutely clear that the current King, Abdullah, was not just an inspired choice to succeed him but has in fact taken the talents of his predecessor to undreamt of heights of excellence.

Am I referring to their handling of Jordan's relations with Israel? Was I thinking of how they have dealt with the dangerous and unpredictable Syrians? Did I mean the wide ranging internal reforms within Jordan? How they walk the tightrope of the ethnic dimension of Jordanian politics? No, none of those things.

I am of course referring to the Hashemite Kings outstanding taste in elegant, exquisite, intelligent women! Queen Noor was, and Queen Rania is, simply breathtaking. In these days of geopolitical turmoil, terrorism and economic confusion, let us pause for a moment and applaud a world leader for his taste in babes. As Mel Brooks said "It's good to be the King!"

We do have some genuine friends in the Middle East... and is it such a bad thing that some of them are real lookers?

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Actor Bruce Willis refuses to fly to Britain 'because his children pleaded with him not to', cricketers Robert Croft and Andrew Caddick refuse to fly to India due to 'security concerns'. Fine, that is their prerogative. It is also the prerogative of others to judge these 'public' individuals by their actions. In spite of the fact these people are far more likely to die whilst crossing the road, they allow misplaced fears to determine their actions.

Terrorism works when people allow themselves to become terrorised and that seems to have occurred with the timid of heart. Apparently Willis wants his children to react to even the most indistinct nebulous 'threat' by cowering behind the gated walls of their mansion. I hope his next role as an 'action hero' is greeted with the same derisory smirks and pithy asides that greeted Ann Heche when she played the heterosexual love interest for Harrison Ford in 'Six days, Seven Nights'.

In less dissembling times, I think Willis, Croft and Caddick would have been called 'cowards'.

So when Ann Heche's former partner Ellen Degeneris stands up at the Emmy's last night with a red, white and blue ribbon and says "What would bug the Taliban more than seeing a gay woman in a suit surrounded by Jews?", it becomes clear that not only is she a very good comedienne, not everyone in Hollywood is cringing in terror and blaming it on 'their children'.

So here's to you, Ellen. As we always suspected, you are indeed the one wearing the trousers.

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The state is a core of malevolence surrounded by a thick cloying crust of incompetence
-Perry de Havilland

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Home diagnosis in your future?
(from the JP Morgan Tech Daily)

Smart bandage spots infection
A hi-tech dressing could help doctors tell the difference between types of bacteria and send the results to a PC, BBC News reported yesterday. This information can help doctors choose which antibiotic might be most suitable to treat it. The silicon sensor in the dressing is the size of a pinhead. Scientists hope that once the test is fine-tuned, it can be read by a computer, enabling a patient at home to monitor cuts and wounds for signs that dangerous bacteria were invading.

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Whilst I am far too modest to tell anyone how many notches I have on my bed's headboard, someone can reasonably add two more notches now that Dale and Natalie have lost their virginity by blogging (presumably the 'someone' in question is the seemingly omnipresent 'Joe Blogs'... who obviously 'swings both ways' it would seem, unless Joe is short for Josephine).

Good to have you (oops) both aboard.

Regarding the Samizdata displacing the Libertarian Alliance Forum, I don't think so. A blog is not really as interactive as a forum and thus suggests we post in a less 'immediate' way. I think blogging is more akin to sending a letter to the editor of some dead tree publication. When we blog, we are letting the world know what we think either by re-posting something we have found of interest or, primarily, by writing our own editorial on the events that are of interest to us as critically rational individuals. I regard a forum such as the LA-F as more akin to public conversation.

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Yes, He Is. Take it from me. The Pope really is Catholic. I live in Ireland. We know these things. I've also trompped around in America's forests and I can likewise state with impugnity: "Bears shit in the woods". They really do.

Now given these simple guidelines, why is it so difficult for the media to understand a similar tautology: "Civilians get killed in wars". Sorry, it's not nice, but dems de breaks. Innocent bystanders get killed in all sorts of random and horrible ways. Bombs miss (although that is becoming almost apologetically rare). Bullets, rockets and shells don't go into orbit. As Myers, Rumsfeld, Stufflebeem and others have said in one form or another: "Stuff goes up, stuff comes down, people get hurt". That's gravity for you. It's a real bitch ainit?

The guys on the ground aren't very nice people. The Taliban are quite capable of killing Afghans and claiming someone else did it. They killed enough of their own before we got there, so why would anyone think they'll stop now? And to top it off, there is a lot of shooting and shelling going on. The Northern Alliance isn't firing blanks you know.

Lastly, there has got to be an awful lot of left over ordinance. They are still digging up and disarming bombs in London from the Blitz in 1940 fer crissakes! And that only occured for a few months sixty odd years ago. Afghanistan is filthy with unexploded modern ordinance from over twenty years of nearly continuous warfare. Civilians are lucky to survive walking to whatever passes for an outhouse in that sort of environment.

Could it be that the newsmedia focus on civilian casualties has nothing to do with newsworthiness? I have this deep down suspicion that we're seeing the "civilian casualty" stories not because they are news, but because they are theater. Anyone with a theatrical background knows that "Kids and animals" always steal the show. The only thing that gets attention faster than a cute fluffy doggie and a towheaded (or turbanned) 8 year old are dead ones. That is what the news media is selling us. It isn't news. It's pandering.

Am I being harsh? Damn right I am. War is hell and nothing you can say or do will change it. Look at the aftermath of WWII. The ruins were filled with orphans, children with damaged limbs, eyes, souls. Terrible, terrible things happened to people in Europe. And yet I don't think you will find many who would have preferred the alternative. Nor do many of us prefer the alternative of a world in which the horror of 9-11 is overshadowed by even worse events, one after another after another.

So let's put our news focus on what matters. Winning.

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Like Dale Amon, I lose my co-blogging virginity today, indeed at this moment. That's like not with for any tabloid journalists reading this. If any are, keep reading. You might learn something for a change.

Many hear will have heard me gushing on about (a) blogs and (b) being paid for them as the Wave of the Future etc. The "being paid" bit strikes me as important because only money can transform the provision of decentralised, unmediated news from a hobby of the intelligentsia to a major former of opinion. We need a system where you can, without effort, pay a tiny sum to read a web page.

But it's not all good news. An obvious problem is that of preaching only to the converted. If the "team" list under the toilet sign at the top of the screen all contribute, this blog looks likely to become the Real Libertarian Alliance Forum. I find this somewhat worrying, and not only because it'll make Mario Huet feel bad as his numbers go down through no fault of his own. We'll all become - dare I invoke Banquo's ghost? - atomised.

BTW I have set up my own blog at http://nataliesolent.blogspot.com. I don't think my blogspot's evolutionary niche lies in discussion. Rather I aim to just post comments about news stories and thoughts that interest me. So my dears, don't be sad that I haven't invited you, because I haven't invited anyone. All I want in life really is to be a James Bond supervillain and have a cool wall of TV screens. My Birman cat already fits the part beautifully.

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The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else
- Frederic Bastiat

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There was a time when fraternity pranks meant something. When a frat had to really do something creative or at least utterly stupid to get kicked off a campus. One of the best stories I know of was about the Theti Xi chapter at CMU. In a hell night circa 1959, the brothers went out and welded a trolley car to the tracks. One brother asked for change for a twenty, which was a large sum at the time. And yes, trolley drivers did carry change back in that politer and better behaved day and age. Meanwhile one or more other brothers placed the thermite "bomb" at the trolley's wheel. The rest is history. The City of Pittsburgh had to send out a crane to lift the trolley off the track after the segment of track was cut in front and behind with a torch. Hey, these were CMU engineering students. They know how to do it the job right.

The frat of course got suspended from pledging for nearly four years and was nearly wiped out. Which is fair enough for a prank of that magnitude and expense. But it was funny and the stuff legends are made of. I'd not have believed it at all if one of the brothers had not shown me a scrap book with the original city newspaper clipping. I also saw the wheel and section of track, which were still floating around frat row in my day.

So what is my point? Well, Glenn Reynolds has just posted this link about a rather minor bit of frat fun at the University of Wisconson. At a student variety show, a student pretended to be a black basketball star known for his lines in a commercial. They thought it would be even funnier if he appeared in blackface makeup.

For this the school is considering expulsions. Now I am not one to just idly sit back and talk. I used google, the search engine what God gave us, and with a trivial amount of work arrived at the email address of the Vice Chancellor. I settled for him since there was no email address for the Chancellor. The point of this ramble is best summarized by the email which I have sent to him:

I think you should think long and hard about the real meaning of this and the liberties that will be infringed upon if the fraternity students are punished for basically... nothing at all.

University life is a time for doing silly things, being a complete idiot, even being a total ass. That is part of being a member of a free society.

Likewise others have the freedom to state that they think you have been foolish. However they do not have the right to force you to behave or speak otherwise. Those are the protections that the constitution gives all Americans. It does not say "Freedom of speech, so long as you say or do nothing contrary to the prevailing local opinion".

Your students have the right to burn the flag, protest war, wear blackface makeup, streak across the campus commons, and do any of those things that students do. Other students have the right to disagree and to state their disagreement, whether it be to have a pro-war demonstration or to stand outside the frat house with signs. That is what a free society is all about.

What a free society is *not* about is heavy handed enforcement of behavior from above. I would sincerely hope that should that be the course the University takes against these kids, that they get a good civil liberties lawyer and sue the pants off you.

As Russell Means said at the 1987 Libertarian National Convention, "Freedom is For Everyone."

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Tony Blair addresses the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) on the 5th of Novermber and says his policies of 'restraint' and 'prudence' are going to continue. Yet we are in the middle of an explosion of non-military public profligacy. Government spending is increasing at a much faster rate than the economy is growing and surely every member of the CBI knows that.

Now I realise Blair is a statist politician and thus dissembles by profession, yet the 'great and good' of British capitalism just sit there and listen politely. Was it something about the acoustics that nobody except the TV microphones actually heard what he said? Why were there not hoots of derision and gasps of disbelief from the bovine CBI members, given that it is their companies that in large measure will actually have to stump up the money for this spending binge?

And now I hear that our political 'masters' are maybe/maybe not planning to 'raise taxes' but will most likely be increasing National Insurance 'contributions' (i.e. a tax on employment). So let me get this right... the LABOUR Party wants to make it more expensive to employ people's labour just as the economy is starting to go into recession.

On that day of all days, Guy Fawkes Night, the 5th of November, the people listening to him should have been making a bonfire of their conference programmes and telling Tony Blair the best thing he can do for the economy is to go fight his war in Afghanistan and leave the business of creating wealth to the people who actually create it.

Please, someone. Wake me up!

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There is a first time for everything I suppose. This blog post is just the latest in a long line of first times stretching back to unremembered first steps and a very well remembered... well I won't get into that. In any case, I feel the need to pre-apportion the blame before I unleash myself on the world. Basically it is all Glenn Reynolds fault. Firstly for writing such an interesting blog. His instapundit has become my first point of contact to global news throughout the day. Within days of first reading it (at Jim Bennett's suggestion) Glenn had permanently weaned me from the whinging and whining trivia that CNN supplies as news. And secondly... he's now so "famous" that I can't get him on the phone or email any more.

Secondary blame goes to Rand Simberg and Jim Bennett for suggesting that I should get a blog, or when was I going do so. Thirdly, blame Perry de Havilland for threatening my manhood if I didn't join this fray after getting him hooked on it by pointing him to the Great Satan Glenn's site.

So world, here I am. Be afraid. Be very afraid...or at least hide your daughters; dig a foxhole if you're of a socialist nature; make that a reinforced concrete underground bunker (shock mounts optional) if you are of the uncritical anti-technology ilk and in general keep your head down when I get in the mood for a good verbal dustup.

I've a lot of pent up thoughts from the last few weeks of post-history history, so... Let the fray begin!

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Articles like this are always useful when trying to make up one's mind in the ever interesting 'nature vs. nurture' debate
--
UCLA Team Maps How Genes Affect Brain Structure, Intelligence
Source: Science Daily
Published: 11/5/2001 Author: University Of California - Los Angeles

UCLA brain mapping researchers have created the first
images to show how an individuals genes influence their
brain structure and intelligence.
The findings, published in the Nov. 5 issue of the journal
Nature Neuroscience, offer exciting new insight about how parents
pass on personality traits and cognitive abilities,
and how brain diseases run in families.

The team found that the amount of gray matter in the
frontal parts of the brain is determined by the genetic
make-up of an individuals parents, and strongly correlates
with that individuals cognitive ability, as measured by
intelligence test scores.

More importantly, these are the first images to uncover how
normal genetic differences influence brain structure and
intelligence.

Brain regions controlling language and reading skills were
virtually identical in identical twins, who share exactly
the same genes, while siblings showed only 60 percent of
the normal brain differences.

This tight structural similarity in the brains of family
members helps explain why brain diseases, including
schizophrenia and some types of dementia, run in families.

We were stunned to see that the amount of gray matter in
frontal brain regions was strongly inherited, and also
predicted an individuals IQ score, said Paul Thompson,
the studys chief investigator and an assistant professor
of neurology at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging.

The brains language areas were also extremely similar in
family members. Brain regions that were found to be most
similar in family members may be especially vulnerable to
diseases that run in families, including some forms of
psychosis and dementia.

The scientists employed magnetic resonance imaging
technology to scan a group of 20 identical twins, whose
genes are identical, and 20 same-sex fraternal twins, who
share half their genes.

Using a high-speed supercomputer, they created color-coded
images showing which parts of the brain are determined by
our genetic make-up, and which are more adaptable to
environmental factors, such as learning and stress.

To create the maps of genetic influences on the brain, the
UCLA scientists teamed up with the National Public Health
Institute of Finland, and the Finnish Universities of
Helsinki and Oulu.

In a national initiative, the Finnish team tracked all the
same-sex twins born in Finland between 1940 and 1957
9,500 pairs of twins many of whom received brain scans
and cognitive tests.

Their genetic similarity was confirmed by analyzing 78
different genetic markers. These individual pieces of DNA
match exactly in identical twins, and half of them match in
siblings.

Recent research has shown that many cognitive skills are
surprisingly heritable, with strong genetic influences on
verbal and spatial abilities, reaction times, and even some
personality qualities, including emotional reactions to
stress.

These genetic relationships persist even after statistical
adjustments are made for shared family environments, which
tend to make members of the same family more similar. Until
this study, little was known about how much individual
genotype accounts for the wide variations among individual
brains, as well as individuals cognitive ability.

The UCLA researchers are also applying this new genetic
brain mapping approach to relatives of schizophrenic
patients, and individuals at genetic risk for Alzheimers
disease, to screen them for early brain changes, and help
understand familial risk for inherited brain disorders
where specific risk genes are unknown.

Other UCLA researchers involved in the project are Tyrone
Cannon, a professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral and
human genetics, and Arthur Toga, professor of neurology and
director of the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging.
Images from the study are available online for viewing or
downloading from here

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Guy Fawkes (1570-1606)

Remember, remember
the Fifth of Novermber.
Gunpowder treason and plot.
We see no reason,
why gunpowder treason,
should ever be forgot

- Traditional English 5th of Novermber chant as the bonfire is lit.

Guy Fawkes was the only honest man to ever enter Parliament. Have an excellent bonfire night.

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A couple of interesting bits about how technology is changing the face and pace of the way we live, work and fight.

Digital technology adds new dimension to military
New digital technologies are making it possible for U.S. bomber pilots to safely rehearse difficult missions before they set off over the rugged, mountainous terrain of Afghanistan, Reuters reported on Saturday. Satellite images, aerial photographs, and other data are loaded onto a three-dimensional grid using sophisticated computer technology, giving pilots the chance to get familiar with the target before dropping their bombs. "Our ability to visualize the battle space is absolutely key," said Lt. Gen. James King, of the U.S. Defense Department's National Imagery and Mapping Agency.

Amsterdam airport adopts retinal scanning
At Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, you can afford to forget your passport even if you're boarding an international flight, Newsbytes reported on Friday. A program called "Privium" combines smart-card technology with optical scanning and networked computers to allow travelers to cross the border after retinal-scan identification. A scanner, built by Iridian Technologies, identifies patterns in the human iris. Johan Enschede Security Solutions developed software for the smart card on which encoding of a person's iris is kept.

New Yorkers turn to cyber bar
A new Manhattan nightspot called The Remote Lounge offers a non-stop stream of images, videos, and messages as you drink, BBC News reported on Saturday. Anyone can communicate with anyone else using 77 circuits, more than 120 TV monitors and tiny cameras that are everywhere. Using a joystick and channel selector it is possible to see through and manipulate every camera in the room. The bar has proved so popular that at one point Microsoft and Apple were fighting to be the first to hold a party there for their clients.

Computer students get course to stop them acting like geeks
Munich University is giving computer students courses to stop them acting like geeks, Ananova News reported on Friday. The course promises to give IT students "much-needed" social skills. Subjects include how to dress properly and how to make small talk. The course will also teach table manners. Instead of an exam, students will sit for a three-course lunch to show off their new skills.

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Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
-George Washington

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Libertarian thought is the scythe of the future's cutting edge
-Perry de Havilland